The Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup

The Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup is a Class 2 Handicap Steeple Chase, run over 3 miles 1½ furlongs on the New Course at Cheltenham, where it is currently scheduled as the final race on the third day of the Cheltenham Festival in March. The race is open to horses aged five years and upwards, but restricted to amateur riders.

The contest was inaugurated in 1946, as the Kim Muir Amateur Riders’ Steeplechase, to commemorate Kim Muir, a young cavalry officer who was killed during the early years of World War II. Following his death in 1991, the name of Fulke Walwyn, a celebrated trainer, who saddled 2,009 winners over jumps, including 40 at the Cheltenham Festival, was added to the race title.

The roll of honour for the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of amateur riders over the years, but the most successful ‘gentleman amateur’ is Irishman Jamie Codd, who partnered Character Building (2009), Junior (2011), The Package (2015) and Cause of Causes (2016).